


Deduction

by Shujinkakusama



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Freeform, Gen, Jasper Redemption (Steven Universe), Mostly Platonic, Pink Diamond Theory, Post-Series, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-02 09:12:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13315047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shujinkakusama/pseuds/Shujinkakusama
Summary: Jasper goes to the scene of the crime to investigate Pink Diamond's assassination long after the fact. Pearl is not happy to join her. // Freeform, might do more later, it's... not Jaspearl yet, but let's be real, they'd hook up if this got longer.





	Deduction

Now healed and in agreement that searching for answers was a better option than fighting the Crystal Gems, Jasper was more insufferable than ever. Pearl knew, even before Garnet  _Looked_  at her from behind her visor, even before Steven helpfully volunteered her for it, that it would be just the two of them. She knew that Amethyst didn’t know anything about Pink Diamond’s assassination, and she knew that Jasper didn’t consider Garnet worthy of being where Her Diamond had last stood, even if Pearl privately thought it was ridiculous that Jasper thought it more appropriate for  _her_  to be there.

 

Not that it mattered what Pearl thought. She stood with her arms crossed, deliberately looking away from the pink palanquin, at the field of hollyhocks that she knew didn’t need to bloom year round, but also didn’t think Jasper needed to know were unusual. Behind her, Jasper inspected everything, searched for clues in the last place Her Diamond had been seen alive, and mused a dozen ways the murder could have taken place.

 

Pearl held her tongue, and when she did find she wanted to correct Jasper’s line of thinking--no, there hadn’t been any rubies there, the squad was waiting outside, farther away--she found her voice stolen away as it so often was. There were things she was meant to hold, after all, secrets kept deliberately, buried in her belly, etched into her Gem, that no one would ever know, now.

 

Jasper complained. She spoke poorly of Rose Quartz, and Pearl saw red, but couldn’t find words she was allowed to speak. So she didn’t. But she seethed silently in place, at the left corner of the palanquin, at the first step, where Pink’s pearl belonged, and the star on her chest itched a little.

 

“We have a saying on Earth, not to speak ill of the dead,” Pearl said sharply, unable to take much more of Jasper’s complaining. The sun was starting to set, and they had been here since daybreak. Jumped the fence, ignored the sign, and Pearl turned to look up at the quartz soldier, hoping she would take the hint.

 

The gaze Jasper fixed on her was one of suspicion, and Pearl realized, perhaps belatedly, that the phrase wasn’t just one used on Earth--it was one Jasper would have known, one coopted by humans from Gems during the war, one learned from...

 

“You’ve stood right there, all day,” Jasper said almost accusingly, and Pearl felt blue flood her cheeks, as if she had been caught, even though standing was exactly what she was meant to do. “I’ve never seen you stand still this long.”

 

“I’m not happy to be here.”

 

It wasn’t untrue. Pearl wanted to go home. Pearl never wanted to see the palanquin again, never wanted to stand where She couldn’t ask for her, never wanted to  _think_  about the Gem she wasn’t anymore. 

 

Jasper pursed her lips. “You haven’t moved, not once.”

 

“I’m a  _pearl_. We’re good at standing still.”

 

“ _You’re_  not good at standing still,” Jasper corrected her, but she was looking away again, at the still-intact curtains inside the palanquin, at the chair Her Diamond had once sat in, thousands of years ago. “You’re standing where  _Her_  pearl stood.”

 

Pearl bristled, because that was too close to the truth, too close to the many, many things she had buried inside her. She knew exactly where she was standing. She couldn’t move, couldn’t drop her folded arms, and knew how defensive she looked, knew Jasper was shrewd and full of ideas and questions, and she wished she hadn’t been the one to come along with her.

 

“...I’m a white pearl,” Pearl said finally, deflecting, but she couldn’t look at Jasper, and she had a feeling that Jasper knew the deflection was useless. She swallowed hard against the lies she knew Jasper wouldn’t believe, the propaganda she’d learned and unlearned, the urge to stand the right way, with her hands poised over her midsection, making the shape of a diamond.

 

Jasper grunted, and Pearl hoped that would be the last of it. Finally, the quartz soldier swept down the steps past her, and Pearl cursed the way her legs immediately took to matching her stride, to following without being asked, but at least they could go back to Beach City now, at least that would be the last of it--

 

“She  _had_  a white pearl,” Jasper said, and Pearl nearly tripped, because she wasn’t wrong, and she couldn’t argue it. There weren’t any pink pearls. Not natural ones. None had been finished in time.

 

“I’m  _defective_.” It still sounded bitter on her tongue, but they both knew it was true, and Pearl hoped against hope that Jasper would just take the protest as a hint and drop the subject. 

 

Jasper looked down at her, and Pearl had the sinking feeling that she’d been found out. “Yeah,” Jasper agreed, and then, in a much smaller voice, a conspirator’s whisper that Pearl knew she couldn’t answer; “We all were.”


End file.
